To think I shouldn't have a massive long wait just to get into the sodding airport?

[OuchBollocks]

Stansted need to sort their bloody infrastructure out. This is ludicrous

Ahhh... My heart bleeds for you Try having to drive 5-6hrs every time you have to leave the country. (Obviously I do hope that you get in your flight in time.)

I have been pulling my face all week, as we fly from Gatwick today..... so far from my home in Birmingham however; seeing this has made me feel better!

Hoping you get there soon OP, we're about 45 mins from Gatwick now.

Godspeed Ouchbollocks!
What is causing the hold up?

I always leave an extra hour when going to Stansted - was there yesterday and just made it.

Also having to pay £3.50 for a 30 second drop off really gets my goat.

Patience not your strong suit then?

No BattleCunt not when this is caused by a single lane almost half hour queue to pay three bloody fifty just to get out of the car.

Airports generally need to sort themselves out.

After being stranded for 2 days in Amsterdam due to the snow I arrived at tbe airport to be greeted by a 2 hour queue at security. They only had 2 belts open!!! Why, why, why?

I very nearly missed my flight. Surely they should have organised themselves a little better.

A whole half an hour! Whatever next?

Parking for an hour at Stansted is free in the medium stay car park with regular bus service about every 5 minutes to the terminal. Think it is about £2 for the next hour. Usually no queue to exit either. Car park is well signposted.
The M11 is the real issue for Stansted not to mention that terrible M11/A120 junction is the pits. Who builds a 2 lane motor way out of their capital city to an airport. Stansted was a small local airport when M11 was built I suppose.

leave on time next trip.

You wait til next year- it's going to be awesome!

Ha, can't believe battle is trying to get a rise out of you. I'd be chewing the car door off after ten minutes, traffic really really really grinds my gears.

Luton is the same, hold ups to get into the car park and a roundabout about a mile away it is impossible to get out onto as the traffic from the right is constant

Hope you make your flight op

I feel for you! We were there yesterday and it was mayhem! Lots of cancelled flights. We were lucky that our flight left with just two hours delay.

Please everyone remember that this isn't the fault of individual staff members. We saw some (understandably frustrated) travellers behaving appallingly yesterday. So aggressive, it was horrible.

I live 10 minutes from Stansted and every single experience (drop off, pick up, long stay, medium stay, short stay, security, departure, Ryanair etc) I expect to be a negative one. Last time we travelled should have been perfect (2 stops on the train, no checked luggage) but it took 4 hours to shuffle through security. An hour to get out of a car park is quite common ime. 100 times more frustrating to have this on arrival.

I flew out of Luton once last year. And then back again.

Never ever will I get a flight from that airport. It consisted of a giant car park outside (at 0510 on a Sunday) and a giant cattle market inside with no signage no announcements or seating.

It's the pits. Took me 2 days to recover!

Thanks for the sage advice Creambun2, as it happens I left in plenty of time and managed a cooked breakfast for the three of us (2 DC and me) before boarding. Its still shite having to queue for ages to be unavoidably ripped off.

It annoys me intensely that at Luton, for instance, your car reg is snapped just before you hit the queue for drop-off. You get just 10 minutes for £3.50, but there's no option to get out of the queue. So you could easily rack up a massive bill just for sitting in a queue that "they" have created by bad planning of road layout.

I'm pretty sure everyone who's posted here would feel the same as you in this situation OP.
Aren't there loads of ppl stranded at Stansted because flights have been delayed etc.?
Hope you make your flight ok.

Thanks for the sage advice Creambun2, as it happens I left in plenty of time and managed a cooked breakfast for the three of us (2 DC and me) before boarding. Its still shite having to queue for ages to be unavoidably ripped off.

Dunno why that posted twice

It's shit but queuing is part of the "pleasure" of flying. Queue to drive into the airport, queue to check-in, queue at security, queue to board, queue in the aeroplane waiting for a slot for take off, queue for permission to land, queue to park at a gate, queue at immigration, queue for your luggage.

Next time try arriving at the airport a good five or six hours early. You'll still have to queue to get in, but at least you won't be worrying about missing your plane.

Five hours early for a 7.50am flight with a baby and 3 year old? I'd rather miss my flight

I've flown out of Luton once, when I allowed a notoriously cheap friend to book flights and she chose it because it was cheaper.

Never ever again. If it had been around when Dante was around, his circles of hell would have looked very different.

That's why expanding Heathrow is so bloody mad. There is no space for more traffic - the M4 is jammed most days. Took me an hour and a half to go three junctions yesterday (2-4a)